Most teachers I know are driven by either the school or university to "assign" papers. They have a quota to meet each semester and are not driven by your success. Most likely she hates having to assign such a paper, but is required to anyway.

I've had it happen several times. First they'll tell you that the papers will be graded by the end of the week. When that comes and goes, they say start of next week. When that comes and goes, next week, and so on. All the while they say "I have to grade 300 pages, give me time!" Well no duh bitch, you figured out that giving 30 students 10 pages to write means 300 pages.

Actually its both; they complain about having to grade so many pages while they use it as a justification for the lateness of returning it. I've also had them say that next time the paper won't be so long only to make it just as long or longer.

But the only reason we're not patent is because they're the one who told us they'd have it graded in a week.